Lanvin's S/S 2015 Runway Was Ageless

Lots of fashion models are notoriously young. Like, so young it's actually really creepy. Fourteen year olds should not be traipsing down the runway in clothes designed for grown women, IMHO. They should be eating pizza and shopping at the mall. This Paris Fashion Week, Alber Elbaz agrees. The Lanvin Spring 2015 runway show featured multigenerational models to celebrate the label's 125th anniversary. This shouldn't be groundbreaking, but, well, it is.

Violetta Sanchez, one of Helmut Newton's muses from the '80s, opened the show in a lovely navy one-shoulder jersey dress that looked like a Martha Graham Dance Company costume. According to Style.com, the show featured other seasoned models such as " Kirsten Owen (43), Amber Valletta (40), Esther de Jong (40), Malgosia Bela (37), Anne-Catherine Lacroix (36), and Audrey Marnay (33)" as well as the traditional crop of youngsters.

The multigenerational casting set the stage brilliantly for the collection, which was largely "a reinterpretation of [Elbaz's] own classics for the house" and an honoring of Jeanne Lanvin's legacy, full of t-shirt dresses, tailored-yet-undone separates, jewel-toned cocktail gowns, and bold accessories. All in all, it was the perfect tribute to the house, and to Elbaz's own storied career (he's been designing for Lanvin since 2001).

Although youth is still valued by the fashion industry, there has been a growing trend of brand's bucking tradition and hiring older models. American Apparel featured 62-year-old Jackie O'Shaughnessy in their January 2014 lingerie ads (a rare cool move for the famously terrible company) and just one month later NARS Cosmetics announced that Charlotte Rampling (68) would be the new face of the brand. Are we finally figuring out that a few wrinkles don't disqualify a woman from being considered beautiful?

See what I mean? Let's hope this Lanvin show marks a new era of runway shows with no upper age limit, because fashion is for everyone.

Images: Getty Images